-- Previous Chapter

    *.*.*.*.*.*.*

    ‘Neon-lit Las Vegas, the city without night, ah, Las Vegas of youth, the brief life of Las Vegas.’  I sang a little song of praise to Vegas as the scenery unfolded before my eyes.

    “… but, is this Atami?”(1)

    “It’s not ‘Atahmee,’ it’s Hildyard’s resort town, the world famous pleasure town.”

    “Isn’t it supposed to be a place where all the pleasures known to man are gathered and where luxury is stretched to the limits?”

    “I believe they are all gathered.”

    “But, this isn’t anything like Las Vegas!  There aren’t any roller coasters or pyramid shaped hotels or fountains or stages or musicals.”

    “Vegas isn’t a city like this?”

    Even if he went to America, it seems he didn’t travel the entire country.  This is definitely not the West Coast.  Well, I haven’t been there either.

    Rather than strong old men with slumped shoulders going home from being exploited at the casinos, it seems more suited for guys wearing large kimonos and wooden sandals happily shooting porno writers at a gun range.  Of course, the people who are really walking around here are all blondes and brunettes and their clothes and shoes are all of an other-worldly design and there is nothing Japanese here.  But it’s still like Atami.  I wonder why?

    There are a lot of lively tourists and the touts are shouting enthusiastically from the never-ending shops on both sides of the road.  The buildings are at most three stories high and there isn’t anything taller around.  Here and there are trees that look a bit like small palms that have thin green leaves despite it being winter.  Cats are stretched out randomly on the stone-paved roads.  This may be because of the hot springs, but it’s warm for the season.

    “Anyway, it’s great that we got here safely.  I don’t know how much more of being in that boat I could have took.”

    The latter part of the sea voyage was awful.  If I got hungry and went out to the mess hall, I’d hear gossip along these lines: ‘That’s the guy with the fiancé with morning sickness and the hidden child,’ ‘He’s a lot younger than I thought,’ ‘Having an illegitimate child at that age?’ ‘Oh, but I wonder who that sort of good-looking man with them is,’ ‘Isn’t he the father of that illegitimate child?’ ‘Eh!? Then is that guy a girl even though they look like a guy?!’  And then if I had room service bring me meals in my room, Wolfram sent it all back (half digested).  It was such a horrible two days if it got turned into a one hour special on TV, it’d be called ‘A Crappy Journey, Feeling like You’re in Hell.’

    Greta’s fever subsided, but now I feel like staying in bed from anxiety.

    “Anyway, I want to check in at the hotel and get in the hot springs as soon as possible.”

    At the entrance to town, Conrad pays a bellboy and hands over my trunk.  When I look up, there is a red, Torii-shaped gate in front of me with a round mirror at the top. (2)  Immediately, the second son explains.

    “That is the symbol of the resort town, the Demon Mirror.”

    “The Demon Mirror?  Does that mean we’ve discovered another treasure of the demons!?  Should we rip that down and take it home?”

    “No, that doesn’t belong to us… look here.”

    Diagonal rays of orange light from the setting sun stretched towards the mirror.  I thought they’d get reflected, but the light shined right through it.  In the center of a circular area of the stone paving, several designs appeared with that orange light.  All of the tourists passing by gave a shout of joy.

    It was magical and beautiful.

    “That is the true form of the Demon Mirror here.  At first glance it seems to be a completely normal mirror, but if light hits it from a certain angle it passes through without being reflected and projects several patterns.  I think it’s supposed to have something to do with this country’s god.  In the morning, there’s another pattern on the other side-”

    “It all depends on the skill of the artisan.  The quality differs from the demon mirrors belonging to demons who have supernatural abilities.”

    Stealing his older brother’s words, the third son lifted his nose in the air.  I suppose that means there are other demon mirrors.

    “Our Great Demon Kingdom’s most valuable treasure, the Demon Mirror of the Water’s Surface, has the beautiful and terrible power to show the true face of anyone who looks into it.  Although, it seems to not be in the kingdom at the moment.”

    “We haven’t come here to go looking for that treasure, but to get some treatment from the hot springs, right?  Just to be clear, I’m not searching for any treasure.  I’m here to take it easy soaking in the water and healing my foot.”

    And anyway, that whole ‘true face’ thing sounds like a bunch of crap.  What’s reflected in a mirror is your own face just the way it is.  There’s no ‘truth’ or ‘lies’ to that.

    “That’s right.  We came here for the rehab of His Majesty’s foot so we shouldn’t worry him needlessly.”

    Dodging the people going in the opposite direction, we head south down the Atami street.  The smells of all the food from the various stores are mixing together to create a complicated stench.  Is it like a new variety of stateless cuisine?

    “… Actually it’s more like over-boiled eggs…”

    “Ah, that’s sulfur.  From the hot springs.”

    Oh so that’s what it is.  I’d been thinking it was a really unappetizing smell.

    Coming out of the shopping zone and into the amusement zone, there’s target practice (but with bows and arrows) and ring tossing, and inside the buildings there is drinking and gambling.  In the plaza, there are some wooden buildings and whitish tents.  It makes me remember the circus I was taken to when I was in preschool and couldn’t even tell left from right.  Maybe I was just scared of the make-up, but I dreamt of clowns chasing me.

    A bizarre old man with a protruding belly is yelling while collecting tickets.

    “Hey boys and girls!  Want to go see the freak show?  You won’t be turned into vampires or anything.  You’ll just have a fun thrill before you go home.”

    There’s a picture of a monster on a showy billboard with red writing.  It’s a short phrase that even I might be able to read.

    *.*.*.*.*.*.*

    Baths, baths, baths, as far as the eye can see.

    This is a hot spring paradise.  The Super Bath-House and Health Land in my neighborhood just can’t compare.  Several dozen baths surrounded by rocks are lined up neatly and there are so many people coming in and out of all the entrances that you can’t even slip between them.  It’s kind of like there was a hot spring trade fair at the Tokyo Dome.  And they’re all mixed baths.

    “Wow, awesome!”

    With just a towel wrapped around my waist, I start walking towards a nearby bath.  I can’t use Windpipe No. 1.  It doesn’t have the miracle cure that the hot spring treatment can provide.  The people already in the bath are around ten women.  They’re blatantly pointing at me and whispering amongst themselves, but I can’t let myself be embarrassed just by that.  The sign said mixed bathing was a go so there’s no need to hold back.

    “Hold on, Your Majesty… I mean, Young Master.”

    “I know, I know, first I have to wash off first, right?  I’ve got to be clean before I get in.”

    “No, that’s not why I stopped you.”

    “What are you doing, Yuuri?  That’s a bath for beauty.  What am I going to do if you get even more beautiful?”

    Blathering on with his weird aesthetic sense, Wolfram quickly walks away.  I guess baths for bruises and sprains are farther in.  For someone who looks like a prince, the fact that he isn’t even wrapping a towel around his waist isn’t very manly.

    As he walked past me, I caught sight of something like a tail flapping.

    “… No way.”

    When I turn around, I see an adorable Greta standing there dressed in a school swimsuit holding a little ducky.  Conrad, in a risqué speedo, is holding out swimming trunks for me and laughing.

    “They’re for swimming.”

    “… Are you kidding!?  This is a thong bikini!  And it’s mustard yellow!?”

    On top of that, there’s tails on the butt part like a tailcoat!?

    This is too embarrassing.  It’d be better to just have my butt out on display!  I tried to protest for a time, but for someone who loves baseball, I’m weak against things that are written in a rule book.  When in Rome, do as the Romans do.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  If wearing this bikini thong (with tails) is going to heal my ankle, then I’ll just have to think of this all as a lost bet.

    So, I got in the baths in a swimsuit so embarrassing if someone took a picture of me I’d cry.  The bruise and sprains bath is right next to the sword wounds bath and there are five scary old guys bathing there who say nothing to us, but when they stand up, they’re all wearing the same thongs.  It took all I had to not laugh.

    The effects of the hot springs were immense.  Even though I knew it was healing, somewhere in my heart I was still a bit apprehensive about putting weight on my right ankle, but now I can walk firmly on it without the cane.  If I keep this up for three days, then the bones will strengthen.  Even if I have to embarrass myself in front of everyone, I’ll come here just to get in the baths.

    Two hours later, after having my fill of all the baths, I aimlessly walk around the Atami-like town.  In the restaurant zone said to hold tastes from all the corners of the world, I try a Kirdar dish that Lord Weller recommended.  I thought it was baked eel, but when they told me it was actually an insect I worried about what to do (I ate it, though).

    Compared to our rough treatment on the ship, the hotel was first class and comfortable.

    That was due to Conrad kindly changing our reservation to two twin rooms.

    Because it would be a problem if the assassin and the target were paired together, Wolfram and I are in the same room.  It’s the same as usual.

    There were sounds coming from the adjacent room for a while, but by the time my digital analog G-shock told me it was nine, it was completely quiet.  The last thing I heard as I was on my 50th sit-up after throwing my sheets aside was a door shutting and footsteps leading away.

    “… Conrad went out!”

    The third son, who had turned off the lamp and was slowly drinking some local wine in the moonlight, showed no interest.

    “Hey, Conrad went out.  I wonder if he went to go see that woman from before.”

    “I doubt that.”

    “Why?  Even if you are brothers, aren’t you a little too confident?”

    “He’s not interested in that sort of woman.”

    When I first came here, he wouldn’t even acknowledge that he was a demon, let alone his brother.  I wonder what changed that he would actually know what sort of woman Conrad preferred.

    “Then what kind of woman does he like?”

    “He likes them more pure, or should I say plain, maybe even rude.  I guess... girls like Suzanna Julia.”